Nicolas Genty

Cass. civ. 1, 12.07.2012, Hewlett Packard v. UFC Que Choisir, No. 11-18.807, A consumer association had brought an action for an injunction against the practice of a distributor consisting in selling computers pre-equipped with operating software without offering the purchaser the possibility (...)

CA d’Aix-en-Provence, 28 March 2012, Immobilière Barbey v/ Immomedia Communication, RG n° 10/22732 On the occasion of a dispute between a real estate agency and the publisher of a magazine, concerning the non-payment of sums owed by the former to the latter, a court of appeal noted that "Article (...)

A Polish food distribution company, which issued a large number of corrected invoices to take account of discounts following product returns, had reduced the taxable amount and therefore the amount of VAT to be paid, in accordance with Article 90(1) of the ’VAT Directive’ of 28 November 2006. The (...)

CJEU, 9 November 2010, Mediaprint c/ "österreich" - Zeitungsverlag, C-540/08 Cass. civ. 1, 15 November 2010, P. c/ Lenovo France, appeal No. 09-11.161 In the first case, an Austrian daily newspaper held the election for "footballer of the year" at the end of 2007. Voting was carried out via (...)

This 4th roundtable of the Paris 27 May 2010 conference was dedicated to the issue of agency. The application of the prohibition of restrictive agreements to agency agreements remains particularly tricky to deal with. The European Commission applying its theory elaborated throughout its (...)

An appeal court had fined an internet service provider €20,000 for misleading advertising. To justify their decision, the judges noted that "the consumer was induced to believe, by cross-referencing the general information contained on the website and the individual information on the (...)

Following its ruling of 23 April 2009, which considered a Belgian law prohibiting "joint offers" to be contrary to Directive 2005/29/EC of 11 May 2005, the European Court of Justice also considers a German law establishing a prohibition in principle of practices "coupling the purchase of goods (...)

In order to persuade consumers who had been canvassed by telephone to change operator, one telephone operator had developed a sales pitch on per-second call charges that did not include any details on the cost of each connection or the minimum monthly billing amount. The information contained (...)

Facts Before the expiry of the ten-year period, a victim had brought an action for liability on account of a defective vaccine against the person whom he believed to be the producer of the product in question. The alleged producer had argued that it was only the distributor of the vaccine and (...)

Cass. civ. 1, 28 May 2009, Groupement des Cartes Bancaires v/ Association Consommation Logement et Cadre de vie, appeal n°08-15.802 Following the decree of 19 March 2009, which established an inventory of twelve terms irrefragably presumed to be unfair (i.e. prohibited in themselves) and eleven (...)

Facts One company had offered for sale a magazine with a scratch-off game with the possibility of winning a sum of money and participating in a draw for a monthly life annuity. La Française des jeux had filed a complaint with a civil party for a prohibited lottery and deception. Having been (...)

Facts A company had entered into a rental agreement for two mobile home pitches on the campsite it operated, for a period of one year, renewable from year to year by tacit agreement. By registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, she had notified the tenants of her decision not to (...)

Decree no. 2009-16 of January 7, 2009, published in the Official Journal of January 9, 2009, amends the regulatory texts taken within the framework of Article L. 310-2 of the French Commercial Code on sales by unpacking. Three essential changes have been made. Firstly, the mayor of the (...)

Law No. 2008-776 of 4 August 2008 Adopted on 4 August 2008, the law on modernisation of the economy is a new step in the reform of relations between suppliers and distributors. This new reform comes three years after the Dutreil law of 2 August 2005 (which overhauled the rules applicable to (...)

Adopted on 4 August 2008, the Law on the Modernisation of the Economy (LME) raises many questions that have inspired the administration (DGCCRF) to produce a set of questions and answers concerning the new regime of balances, trade relations and payment periods. As regards the system of sales, (...)

The Prime Minister has issued a decree specifying the agricultural products excluded from reverse auctions under Article L. 442-10 of the Commercial Code, namely : Fruit and vegetables intended to be sold fresh to the consumer, including ware potatoes, Meat and offal of cattle, veal, pork, (...)

Facts A distributor had been marketing a supplier’s products for eighteen years. This supplier had been absorbed by a company, which, under the terms of a rider drawn up in 1999, continued the contract and then terminated the relationship in 2003. The Court of Versailles had considered this (...)

The Chatel law, promulgated on 3 January 2008, is presented by its author as the first part of an umpteenth reform of the rules of trade negotiation. It includes two major provisions: the lowering of the threshold for resale at a loss to "three times net", allowing the deduction of the (...)

Facts A provider of airline services had partially severed its commercial relationship with one of its suppliers before the latter definitively terminated it. The supplier had subsequently brought an action for compensation for the damage caused by the abruptness of the partial severance of (...)

Facts One company had had a commercial relationship with its carrier since 1995. In September 2003 it invited the carrier to participate in a tender procedure for the transport services entrusted to it. On 3 February 2004, the company informed the carrier of "its poor position in this tender (...)

Facts After termination of an exclusive concession contract, the grantor had granted the right to exploit its trademark in the same territory to a new concessionaire. The latter had acquired from the former concessionaire the premises, equipment and inventory corresponding to the activity (...)

Facts A website publisher had put a video game for sale on its website before the date of its official release, at a price lower than its public price. Citing the existence of a manifestly unlawful disturbance and imminent damage to the video game’s distribution signs, the game publisher in (...)

Following the publication of the report on the group action of 16 December 2005, drawn up by the working group set up by the Minister of the Economy and the Minister of Justice, the Competition Council was invited to submit its observations on the application of such a consumer collective (...)

Decree No. 2006-85 of 27 January 2006 on the system of prior declaration of commercial events provided for the adoption of an order to specify the applicable provisions. This was done with the decree of 12 June, which repealed the decree of 10 January 2001. First of all, the text gives the (...)

Following the examination of its file by the Departmental Commission for Commercial Equipment, Leroy Merlin obtained authorisation to create "a sales area of 5990 m²". Two companies and an association presented a request before the Tribunal. Administrative for the annulment of the said decision. (...)

Since the Order of 25 March 2004 simplifying the law, the system for authorising trade fairs and exhibitions has been replaced by a declaration system. If the commercial event takes place on the premises of an exhibition centre, only the annual programme of the centre has to be declared to the (...)

Facts Usines Merger alleged that Giat, its holding company Gitech and its subsidiaries Foc and CMD had, in particular, engaged in abusively low pricing practices on the market in speed reducers and in acts of unfair competition. The Council, seized for an opinion by the Commercial Court, (...)

Facts In 1995 the Kronenbourg Breweries concluded a selective distribution agreement for the marketing of cask beer. Under this agreement, the distributor undertakes to purchase the brand’s cask beers only from Kronenbourg or other authorised distributors and not to sell the cask beers outside (...)

Many manufacturers optimise the marketing of their products by specialising one or more brands in different distribution channels, such as food superstores, specialised supermarkets and traditional small shops. Thus, Royal Canin has differentiated its products and brands according to the (...)

The Council of Ministers of the European Union signed Directive 2005/29/EC prohibiting unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices on 11 May. The text states that "a commercial practice is unfair if: (a) it is contrary to the requirements of professional diligence, and (b) it materially (...)

On 27 January 2004, the Director-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control requested the Trade Practices Review Commission (TPRB) to issue an opinion on ERAs. The aim was to "highlight the conditions under which the practices observed would comply with the law". The opinion (...)

This opinion makes an interesting point on the application of national competition rules. in the area of vertical restraints. The referral to the Competition Council follows a request made by an Professional association pursuant to Article L. 462-1 of the French Commercial Code. It should be (...)

Since the adoption of Law No 96-588 of 1 July 1996, known as the Galland Law, which modified the methods for calculating the threshold for resale at a loss, economic operators in the distribution sector have increasingly resorted to commercial cooperation and the development of back margins has (...)

Facts A footwear company had placed advertisements for the period from June 1 to June 5 for a large unpacking sale at its factory with discounts ranging from 30% to 50%. A letter addressed by the sub-prefect to the city’s senator-mayor stated The willingness of management to deplete stocks that (...)